Blog Post

Oh, I know, the weather is usually as dark and dreary as the season’s mood. It is a challenge for those who suffer from both environmental and emotional seasonal effective disorder. It has been a downer. As the season of Lent aims at human sinfulness, we can too often feel like the weight of ideal expectations lay heavily upon us. To me, it is like going to the doctor, only to be told constantly that the numbers could be just a bit better, even is they are statistically pretty good. Or, perhaps it is like weighing one’s self daily and feeling the cultural pressure to see constant loss. Maybe it is striving to be always better, more fit, more righteous, more moral, more responsible, more, more, more, more, more.

Lent accompanies us like a dark cloud overhead. Like Eeyore, in constant search for his lost tail and recovering from yet another wind storm that has destroyed his lean-to home, we find nothing positive. We find no joy. We see no sun/Son shining. We bear Lent like a burden, like a Cross laid upon our shoulders.

May I humbly suggest an alternative? As we walk with Jesus toward that Jerusalem Cross of sacrifice, can we see Lent as the epitome of call? Can we see it as vocation, personified and idealized? From the time that Jesus met the woman at the well, from the time that he embraced a wider scope for his ministry than his own kind, type, and clan, Jesus set his face to Jerusalem. Jesus was intent on providing a model of human life that is defined by sacrifice of self for the sake of every other. Jesus established an archetype of ethical human life. Characterized by Crucifixion/Resurrection, Jesus demonstrated to all humankind a willingness to bear the pain and humiliation of self-sacrifice, all in order that people might imagine a servant life-style of their own.

The epitome of vocation and call rests in one’s ability and willingness to go out of her or his way for the sake of those who need his or her service. The ideal of following Christ Jesus is intentional priority of the needs of those who do without, who struggle, who mourn, who cry, who hunger and thirst. It is to place one’s self in the fight for justice, in the courts and on the streets. It is in the effort of peacemaking. It is being faithful to the archetype of Christ, where we allow the self to be subjugated to the needs of the neighbor, the child, the Creation.

Lent is not just about being better people. Lent is about being better called servants. It is about the intentionality of following in the path of Christ Jesus, living according to the archetype of Crucifixion/Resurrection. It is entirely about sacrificing self for the sake of every brother or sister, son or daughter.

I recommend that we “hocus-pocus, switch our focus.” The question of Lent is not what we might give up to make us better people, but what we might do to make others’ lives better. Our sight becomes fixed on the needs of those around us instead of upon ourselves. While it is true that we may find ourselves giving up some of the things we value in the effort of focusing on others instead of ourselves, we will be doing it for them instead of for us. And that sounds like a vocation that is nearer and dearer to the mission and ministry of Jesus.

Boundary training will be offered for SONKA ministers at Harmony Creek Church, 5280 Bigger Rd, Kettering, Ohio, on Saturday, October 19th. You choose which of the two sessions to attend, each focusing on three case studies around boundary issues. The first session will be held from 9 a.m to Noon. The second will be from 1-4 p.m. To register for the MORNING session online, please click here. To register for the AFTERNOON sesssion online, click here. To see the flyer click here.